The Wolverine: James Mangold Talks Berserker Rage And Japanese Influence

We've now seen trailers for most of 2013's summer blockbusters, including titles like Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Lone Ranger, but yet The Wolverine has continued to keep its distance. The movie is one of the later releases in the hotter months, not set to come out until July 26th, but still we can't help but highly anticipate the clawed one's return to the silver screen and possible redemption after X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The good news that has arrived today is that we should be seeing some footage soon...but don't expect too much.

MTV recently had a chance to sit down with director James Mangold, who is hard at work putting together the superhero movie for release, and not only did the filmmaker reveal some bits about how and when we will be seeing a first trailer, but also more about what we can expect from the movie.

As for the first footage, Mangold didn't reveal an exact time or date, but did say that we should expect something "soon." But if you're hoping that the trailer will deliver every little detail about the movie you might be out of luck. Said the director, "I think you always want to put your best foot forward. For me, I'm not the marketing department of Fox, but for my own tastes, less is more."

Discussing the film directly, the filmmaker also made a point about how the cast isn't exactly filled with recognizable names and instead the has mostly Japanese actors. And it makes plenty of sense: 90% of the movie will be taking place in the Asian nation. Said Mangold,

"There is a significant amount of Japanese spoken in the movie, and the cast is almost entirely Japanese. So there is this wonderful sense of cross-pollination between a very Western character and a far Eastern culture, and I think it's very cool and something we haven't seen so far. I think there is a lot of ways that Japanese film, Japanese fighting, Japanese martial arts have had an effect on this movie. And certainly the movie is dripping with Japanese tradition both cinematically, fighting-wise and philosophically as well."

As for his approach to the titular character, Mangold's mentioned that his approach to the project was to emphasize the intensity of the character. And for fans of the comics, he also confirmed that the hero's trademark berserker rage (a state where his powers are heightened by extreme anger). "Honestly, to get really pissed off — not cute pissed off, not quippy pissed off, not funny pissed off or cigar-chomping pissed off, just pissed off — that can then help drive the fighting, drive the combat," he told the site. "That is interesting for me and then for the character, some of the jet fuel underneath some of the combat in the film."'

For more about The Wolverine head over to our Blend Film Database.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.